Lico in Real Life

CHAPTER ONE

LEO

Leo stared out of the car window, dreading ever having to get out of the car. With a couple rubber bands in his hands unconsciously creating some sort of sling shot, he was free to look out the forested and rainy area outside of the window, hidden in his own thoughts.

He had already gone through his share of foster homes, though this foster home was supposed to be ‘different’. It’s not like he has heard that nine times. Though, another foster boy is going to join him at the foster home, which he guessed would help loneliness and really he could use somebody to really talk to. Kind of like a brother.

Though Leo knew he could never find something inside him deep enough to actually love somebody again, like a brother or like a mother or like a lover. His heart was guarded and though he constantly flirted and made friends, his actual feelings were very reserved.

Nine foster homes.

Nine families.

Nine schools (actually eleven).

Nine times running away.

Nine new places.

Many more.

Leo had this thing with staying put. His hands, completely uncontrollable and constantly in motion. His brain, turning over every little thing at every given moment. His home, well he never really had one in the last seven years. He was the one who left all of them.

His smiles hide his tears, his jokes hide his pain.

Pain was an unbearable thing. Pain has so many elements, so many levels. There is loss and grief and guilt and anger and hopelessness and sadness and corruption.

Suddenly, the car comes to a stop and the man driving the car, Mr. Larry; Leo’s Foster Assistant  Dude for the day, grunted and told Leo to get out of the car. Well that guy sure liked Leo. Really, he had an excuse. Leo’s situation had given the man endless hours of work.

Normally, he would have smiled and cracked some sort of joke towards the grumpy man. However, Leo felt particularly nervous and curious about this new foster family. Many of his Daily Foster Assistants (who always claim they will stay with him forever but never do) had raved about this new family for hours. About how they had taken in cancer kids and kids with abusive pasts and stuff like that. So, Leo’s ‘brother’ would be some sort of extremely mentally or physically damaged kid? Great.

Also, it means his situation is considered as bad as a kid with cancer.

As Leo stepped out of the car, heaving a duffle bag full of ‘clothes’ (actually fun of metals and wrenches and inventions that he just simply couldn’t leave behind), he turned to look up at the house he would be staying at for the next… well… that depended on if he liked it.

Leo found that the house was small, shabby, and adorable. The front door was bright red though the whole house was white other than a brown tiled roof. The front lawn had no grass, but rather lots of vegetables and was probably a large garden. The path to the door way was made of stones, and Leo followed his assistant dude to the door.

The door bell rang and opened it was a very beautiful woman with large green eyes, wavy golden hair tied loosely in a braid, and a casual T-Shirt and jeans. She seemed about thirty. Young for having many previous foster children. Strange.

“Hello! I am Brittany! I am your foster mother now, Leo!” She said with lots of enthusiasm and energy. Leo wanted to make a good first impression, and decided to take on her energy.

“Hi Brittany! I’m Leo! I’m very excited to be here, it’s so…. Pretty,” he said, trying to be very happy and smiley and joyful and joking. It hurt, but she obviously fell for it, like everybody does.

“Oh! I have you two waiting outside! Come in, and meet my husband, Timothy!” she opened the door much wider and disappeared behind it. Leo’s assistant and Leo both paused for a second (the old man giving Leo a strange look for seeming distant and depressed in the car though happy and bright at the house) before Leo followed him through the door.

The house was very small, though very comfortable. The tiles on the floor and the paintings on the wall and the wood table all matched the general theme of the house. With pain, Leo realized that it reminded him of his old house that he shared with his mother so many years ago. Leo winced at the memory, and quickly let his brain move on to new exciting thoughts.

“Leo, go put your bag upstairs! Your room is to the left of the staircase, I’m sorry but you will have to share it with the boy that will also being coming here. I guess he will come later tonight,” Brittany said, seeming kind of unhappy about the news that the other boy would be coming to the house.

Leo was kind of unhappy that he had to share a room with a boy he didn’t know. Sure, he had his fair share of siblings-no-space-share-a-room times, though they had never been with a guy his own age. Did Brittany not realize that two boys sharing a room going through the same stuff couldn’t ever get along? It was practically common sense.

Plus, what type of crazy woman would take in two obviously-depressed-miserable-lives-not-very-happy-or-good-teen-boys. It was… insanity. Foster kids were hard to handle. Foster boys were harder to handle. Foster teen boys were even harder. Two foster teen boys…. Woah there are you okay?

Leo found his (and the other boy’s) room very quickly. It was small for two guys to share, but it had two beds and it would work. As Leo put his bag on one of the twin beds on each wall, he heard a car enter the driveway.

Through the bedroom window, Leo could see as an old lady and a boy about Leo’s age walked out of the blue car. The lady wore a skirt and a vest, with large poofy hair and heels. The boy on the other hand… he was worrisome.

His hair was jet-black, and so was his T-Shirt and jeans. He wore a thick aviators jacket and had a scull ring around his finger. His black shoes laced all the way up to his knees and though Leo couldn’t tell the color of the boy’s eyes from a distance, they were dark. The boy was incredibly skinny, as if he didn’t eat anything at all. His clothes hung off of his skeletal frame like a clothes-hanger. He had deep circles under his eyes like he got no sleep (Screaming in bed nightmares? It’s only getting better). His skin was olive and pale at the same time. He was obviously Italian.

Everything about him literally screamed ‘TROUBLE!’. Leo couldn’t love it more.

Leo loved puzzles, his loved finding and figuring things out, he loved fixing things. He loved broken things. The dark boy in the driveway, was a puzzle. And Leo couldn’t wait to figure it out.